Politics


McCain announces First Coast stop

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) announced a presidential campaign swing through parts of the country where he grew up - including Jacksonville. He calls it his “Service to America Tour,” and he will visit Mississippi today, and Virginia, Maryland, and Arizona, as well as Florida, this week.
The Jacksonville rally will be held on Thursday, April [...]

Sen. Nelson calls for election reform

Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fl) spoke before the state legislature today and presented his ideas for election reform. Here’s the text of his released statement:
This morning in Tallahassee, I spoke before our state Senate on a subject that has become all too familiar to Florida—the right to vote and to have that vote count as [...]

Sen. Martinez addresses legislature

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Florida) addressed the legislature in Tallahassee yesterday. Here’s what he had to say:
Tallahassee, FL - U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) today addressed the entire Florida State House of Representatives on issues including the economy and the mortgage crisis, the environment, health insurance, and the need to work collaboratively on a national [...]

Economic stimulus refund

The Internal Revenue Service now has a calculator on its site that will tell you if you qualify for the economic stimulus refund scheduled to be made in May. The calculator also tells you how much you can expect to get.
Go to www.irs.gov and look for the link “Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator.” You’ll [...]

Court filing fees for indigents

A Florida TaxWatch Research Report released yesterday recommends that the Legislature consider reinstating the civil-filing-fee waiver for persons of indigent status. The report, Charging Indigent Floridians Civil Court Filing Fees Raises Questions of Cost Efficiency and Equal Access to the Florida Court System, concludes that the waiver system may be more cost-effective than the [...]

Legislature Passes $512 in Budget Cuts, More Coming

Florida’s deteriorating fiscal condition took center stage again this week. The state’s Consensus Estimating Conference revised its forecast of Florida’s general revenue collections and the economists reduced their revenue estimates for FY 2007-08 and FY 2008-09 by a combined $2.945 billion–$1 billion in the current year and $2 billion for next year.
The $27.5 billion [...]

Report says state short on money

State budget writers have been given some more bad news. The state’s Consensus Estimating Conference met today to revise its forecast of Florida’s general revenue collections and the economists reduced their revenue estimates for FY 2007-08 and FY 2008-09 by a combined $2.945 billion, including almost $2 billion for the upcoming state budget year.

Crist on the Florida Democratic delegates

Governor Charlie Crist, a Republican, is speaking out about the treatment of Florida Democratic voters and delegates to the convention.

Will taxpayers bail out the Democrat primary mess?

The Democratic presidential primary in Florida has been a mess. Now the taxpayers may be called on to pay for the party’s actions.
Last year, the Florida legislature decided to move the state’s presidential primary to January 29, 2008 - too early for party rules. The Republicans decided to punish the state by taking away [...]

Some thoughts on the primary election results

Unofficial election results are in for Duval County - that’s Jacksonville. Look at these vote totals
Barack Obama 40,830
Mitt Romney [...]